Duilin
Duilin Duilin is the Lord of the House of the Swallow in Gondolin in the Gondolin RPG. Canon Duilin was an elf-lord of Gondolin, chief of the House of the Swallow, as is stated in the Fall of Gondolin. He was a master archer, as well as the "swiftest of all men to run and leap" and surest of archers at a mark. He perished during the Fall upon the walls even as he shot, smitten by a fiery bolt of the Balrogs. : Now the folk of the Swallow bore a fan of feathers on their helms, and they were arrayed in white and dark blue and in purple and black and showed an arrowhead on their shields. Gondolin RPG In his youth, Duilin learned the speech of the birds of Aman, and in 1300, he was made lord of his own household. That house is named after him, Nos Duilin or Nosse Tuilinda. Duilin is rather obsessed with archery and can almost always be found at the archery range. He never tires of practicing and usually rotates between different techniques of archery. : Duilin's motto: : An Archer must be: : Keen of eye, : sure of hand, : fleet of foot, : canny of mind. His personality tends to include a lot of bitchiness. He has a rather dark outlook on things because he thinks they're very likely all doomed and they aren't doing a damn thing about it. Otherwise, he is in the company of Egalmoth or watching over his daughter Maril. He thought she could do better than Agladir but apparently she likes them strong but stupid. Loves their little Antien though. Thinks he'll make a great archer. Things got a little better for a while. Argon came into power, and Duilin supported him full-heartedly because he was an active rather than passive prince. And he liked that Argon pushed back on Glorfindel, always a good sign of strong royalty. It was certainly more serious than when he was almost elected Regent of Gondolin, a role for which he felt wholly unsuited. When they finally decided to evacuate Gondolin, he was all for that too. He thought he'd surely die in the Fall of Gondolin because that's what good and noble lords do, but he survived in no small part due to his lover and Swallowtails. Duilin had a relatively large role at the Havens at the Mouths of Sirion and Arvernien. When the scouts of the Host of the West arrived, Morgoth decided the best strategy was to kill everybody so there'd be no one left to save. Duilin fought a number of new monsters but fell to a cockatrice that petrified him with a single look. There was a valiant attempt to unpetrify him that worked for a short time. When it started reversing, he asked Celegorm to kill him. Swallowtails Swallowtails are an elite special unit formed for the express purpose of guarding the rear of the Gondolin evacuation and consist of the best and most drunken Swallows. Obviously, only the drunk would want such a dangerous task as being rearguard, their position also being the reason for their name. Halatir has the great honor of being the Captain of the Swallowtails and has proven his alcoholism in the past, but he swore off alcohol and mostly keeps his men in check. He remained Captain after his wounded hand, which rendered him useless as an archer and usually the worst possible thing in Duilin's eyes. Love Life An integral part of Gondolin RPG. Duilin is bisexual. A long, long, long time ago, he had a short relationship with Nestalinde. They broke up because of dramatically different viewpoints, namely she is a healer who believes in life and he believes in mercy killings. He occasionally thinks he had a crush on Maril, but more likely, he was just looking after her and felt warm fuzzy feelings for her. His first male lover was a Fountain boy named Alagos, and they had a lot of fun getting into trouble together, including being thrown into prison. When Nar arrived, he almost instantly identified him as Celegorm's son. Apparently, Duilin and Celegorm were fairly close because they had overlapping interests, but Feanor disapproved of anything and everything so the two were more like enemies than friends because fighting actually allowed them more time together than not. Orome was a damn good excuse since he was both of their instructor. Nar is his own person though, and Duilin loves him for all sorts of different reasons. He's suffered and yet he perseveres, something that Duilin really admires. He does believe in mercy killings, and Duilin knows how hard that can be but also agrees it's sometimes necessary. One of the most controversial issues that came up was whether or not people of the Swallow should carry poison on their persons in case the enemy should capture them. Nar said yes because imprisonment is worse than death for a lot of people, and Duilin followed his advice. Duilin is significantly older than Nar, tsk tsk. However, he is in some ways more innocent because he has never been exposed to Angband directly. Duilin and Nar are bonded in marriage, but Nar doesn't necessarily understand the fullness of their bond because Duilin's never really made a big deal about it or talked about it. Nar has pushed on after Duilin's death, and that's exactly how Duilin would've wanted it. Category:Canon Characters